Flight number record
DL 546
Delta Air Lines · Phoenix to New York
- Route
- PHX → JFK
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 546, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 546 earns an A−. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 15 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs close to two hours. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 16 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 546's record is 15 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 150 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
92.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 350 completed flights
Avg delay
118 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.11%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.4%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 16 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Schedule
When DL 546 flies
DL 546 flies PHX to JFK without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:00, used on 148 of 365 flights, with 06:15 (62 flights) and 05:45 (55 flights) next.
- Departs 06:00148 flights40.5%
- Departs 06:1562 flights17.0%
- Departs 05:4555 flights15.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 06:00 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and DL 546 runs 3 points better at 92.3%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
DL 546 next to PHX to JFK
Every carrier on PHX to JFK combined arrived on time 78.4% of the time across 3,096 flights, so DL 546 is 14 points ahead of it. Delta flew 919 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 85.1% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 11 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 546 | 365 | 92.3% | 118 min | 4.11% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on PHX–JFK | 919 | 85.1% | 86 min | 3.48% | A− |
| All carriers on PHX–JFK | 3,096 | 78.4% | 80 min | 3.23% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 546 quarter by quarter
Quarter by quarter DL 546 held fairly steady: 90.0% in Jul–Sep 2025, 93.2% in Oct–Dec 2025, 89.4% in Jan–Mar 2026, 96.7% in Apr–Jun 2026 and 89.5% in Jul–Sep 2026. A spread of 7 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights90.0%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights93.2%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights89.4%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights96.7%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights89.5%
Scale runs 80% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 546 ranged from 87.8% on Monday to 98.0% on Saturday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 10 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 546 runs when it is late
DL 546 often beats the schedule: 192 of 350 completed flights, 55%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 27 late arrivals split 11 under half an hour, 4 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 12 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early192 flights54.9%
- Within 15 min131 flights37.4%
- 15–29 min late11 flights3.1%
- 30–59 min late4 flights1.1%
- 1–2 hours late3 flights0.9%
- 2+ hours late9 flights2.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 350 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 21 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 7 still arrived on time. 13 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 546
The latest arrival of the period was on 12 September 2025, 12 hours 21 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 12 September 2025 | 12 hours 21 minutes | Carrier |
| 30 March 2026 | 5 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 October 2025 | 4 hours 41 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 January 2026 | 4 hours 19 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 17 February 2026 | 3 hours 56 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 546 runs late
Carrier accounts for 72% of the 3,178 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 72%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 72%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,282 of the 3,178 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 3,178 delay minutes reported on DL 546.
Cancellations run at 4.11%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.4% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
At 2,153 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
Every one of the 365 flights under DL 546 in the data flew PHX to JFK. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking DL 546
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 546: 4.11% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs close to two hours, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- PHX to JFK, every carrier and departure
- JFK to PHX, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 791 on the same route76.8%
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on-time record
- Every Delta Air Lines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
A flight number here means Delta Air Lines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.